Waking Nightmare
by Evey Claire
Summary: Claire has a nightmare, an awful dream covering two whole years, but when she wakes up she realizes the nightmare has become her reality. And that reality is, Morganville? Tossed into a world where vampires are real and ghosts haunt her every step, the only thing keeping Claire alive is her dream of the dark future. Will she be able to stand her new world and will she ever wake up?
1. Chapter 1

**This is basically a rewrite of the books, except this time Claire knows what's going to happen and things are going to go down quite differently. It starts with her waking up, from her nap at the Glass House as she goes for her interview with Michael to see if she can stay with them, except she kind of accidently ends up sleeping the night away and waking up there in the morning. But you see Claire Danvers isn't the Claire Danvers we all know and love (hate), she has absolutely no idea how she got from her home in wherever-the-hell-she's-from to Morganville, because it was all just a really cool dream right? Vampires don't exist! And neither do ghosts or draug or living houses or secret labs and almost magical portals. Or do they?**

**Oh and beware there is swearing and over use of italics. **

Claire Danvers, an exceptionally ordinary girl, despite all her self-consciousness that told her she was a complete freak, woke up to find that it had been a dream. One huge dream. An _exceptional _dream.

Sighing, she groaned and looked over at the glowing number of her digital clock, signaling just how tired she was going to be tomorrow, er, today. 4:33. What an awful time to wake up. With another groan she flopped back against the soft warmth of the pillow that promised oh-so-sweet slumber and tried in vain to fall into a blessed sleep until light began to stream in through her windows.

Two years.

Two whole complete years.

She didn't even think it was possible to dream two whole years in a matter of five hours. Days sure, but _years? _

That a was looooooong time. _Exceptionally _long.

Ah, bugger. 5:58. Since when did it start getting light out so early? Claire now how had exactly one hour and seventeen minutes to try and get some actual sleep, but she knew it was futile. She was far too awake. Her whole freak-smart brain was still twisting the strange dream around in her head, desperately trying to make sense of it. Two years! God, the dream so was so real, so crystal clear, and now, staring around her slowly lightening room, it felt like life was turning into a dream, all fuzzy around the edges like a really bad trip or something. Claire also realized as she gazed about in her stupor that the bedroom had three windows. Which was exactly two more than her bedroom possessed.

_What the hell?_

This was not the bedroom of Claire Danvers.

Alright, Step one: Figure out where the fuck I am. No. Step one: Health check. She flexed her toes, bent her legs, then her arms, finally letting her fingers roam over her face to check for collateral damage. One split lip, one major bruise. Ick. Any missing body parts? Nope? Good. Step two: Figure out where the fuck I am. Step three: Get out of wherever the fuck I am. Step four: Get home from wherever the fuck I am.

Except this room wasn't exactly unfamiliar.

It was large, spacious, bigger than any room she'd had before and had a large dresser against one wall, a huge dresser, big enough to store a body in. Creepy. And the bed, full sized, dark, sturdy wood and thick columns, and a closet across the room next to the door. Door. Okay that seemed important. Claire wondered briefly where that door would lead, but then she laughed. Not a real laugh, a frightened, chocking laugh, because she knew exactly where she was remember?

"But it was just a dream!" she whispered, unable to contain the growing panic.

"I'm afraid it's not," said a voice from the corner. Claire jumped straight up in bed, barely stifling a scream, eyes straining in the dim light to see, arms held out in precaution.

"Who are you?" she gasped, barely able to talk, the fear rising. _Have I been kidnapped? _Claire frantically looked around and spotted a shadowed figure sitting prim and proper on the edge of an old Victorian style chair. A girl definitely, very small in stature, but beyond that Claire had no idea what she looked like, the light almost seemed to bend around her.

"Someone. Someone you'll meet later. But for now, simply the person who awakes you. I wish you luck. I hope you win."

Claire blinked and a moment later the figure was gone. _The fuck? _

No time now, to think about that or the dream. Wait no, the dream. Was she still in it? It didn't feel like a dream, but then again the dream felt so real! Claire paused for a moment, thoroughly confused.

She was in a house, a house she had dreamed about living in. Dreamed that she lived in this very house for two whole years! But now she was in it? In a dream house? No, that wasn't right, wasn't possible. It was a _dream. _Aren't dreams synonymous with "not real?"

Before Claire could ponder any further or even begin to come up with a plan, a soft knock came at the door. "Claire? Are you awake?"

Creepy. _How did they know my name? _

Oh right, the people who lived in the house with me, obviously knew me, in that _dream_.

"Claire?" She froze, unsure whether to answer or not. She went with the opossum version and decided to play dead, or more specifically play sleeping. Claire leaned back in bed, making sure it didn't creek and slowly pulled the covers back over her, listening intently for outside movement. After a moment's pause she heard soft footsteps padding away down the hall and then the quite swish of a door opening and closing.

It had been a girl at her door. What was her name again? Ever? Ellie? Shreve? No! Eve, Eve, Eve. That was it. The goth girl. The nice one. And Michael. The boy she was dating. Wait no married, they were married and he wasn't exactly a boy.

Well there that proved it. _Vampires. _Vampires don't exist and therefore that/this is all a dream. Either Claire was still dreaming and all she had to do was fall back asleep to escape this dream-turning-nightmare, or she had gotten kidnapped and drugged and the weird dream was just a side effect, the room familiar because she had been dragged into it the night before. Which certainly brought up an interesting and rather important question.

_Did I get raped or something? Am I going to get raped?_

It certainly didn't _feel_ as though she had gotten raped, but that didn't really guarantee anything. No, she wasn't going to think about that, it would just scare her more. "I'm just being paranoid, really, really paranoid, like every teenage girl," she whispered to no one in particular. But she knew the words held no truth. She was in a mildly strange place, how she had gotten there was a complete mystery, there had been a stranger in this half-strange bedroom, a slightly less strange roommate and a very, _very _strange dream. Yeah, Claire Danvers had quite a bit to be worried/paranoid about.

Back to the stranger. Who had she been? How had she gotten in here? Where did she go? Portal?

_Claire stop! It was a DREAM! There is no such thing as monsters or portals or anything. Maybe there's a trapdoor or something._

Except Claire knew there wasn't a trapdoor because one moment there was a person there and the next moment there was no one. Less than a second. Boom.

_Damn it, Claire! Keep your head straight!_

She was losing it, slowly, but surely freaking out into a state of utter panic. Who wouldn't be? Claire was genuinely surprised that she had even been able to keep her cool for this long. Before she could help it, tears started pouring down her cheeks.

How could this be happening to her?

**So tell me what you think, loves! And please for the love of all that is holy, REVIEW! It's really not rocket science, in fact I will be minorly to majorly offended if you don't….**

**Peace and love and sweet dreams!**


	2. Morning Blues: Breakfast Sucks

**Woot woot, chapter two. So here's some more info to help you along. This follows the books, pretty closely, but then sometimes not and I will change events to help this story along. Basically Claire wakes up at the Glass House after her nap (like how it happened in book one) and she's had this dream. In the dream, she dreamed the entire series, so basically she knows all the events that are going to happen like where the book is, when Bishop is coming, the Draug, everything, because this dream is like a vision of her future. And in this story, Claire, knowing how everything works out, decides she doesn't like how it all played out and is going to change it all. So it will follow the book's plotline except Claire won't act like Claire, she's this omnipotent badass. I hope you enjoy. Also sorry for any inconsistencies. Read on little monsters. Oh and anything bolded is direct dialogue from the books. **

Focus, focus, focus.

"Claire?" another knock on the door. The voice was friendly, warm, it didn't sound like the voice of some evil kidnapper. Claire, still partially paralyzed with fear managed to mumble out an almost unintelligible, come in, or something she hoped sounded like that.

The door opened slowly, and a head popped around the opening. Black-dyed hair held in pigtails by cute little skulls, thick black eyeliner, black lipstick and snow-white skin; goth girl._ Eve. _"Hey, um, you were really out last night so we just let you sleep. I'm going to be heading off for work soon, but you're welcome to breakfast. It's just me and Shane, Michael will be back later." The girl gave a small, nervous smile and disappeared down the hall, closing the door behind her.

Weird, majorly weird.

Claire climbed out of bed wearing the same clothes as the day before and not feeling the least bit clean about it. Staring around the room, she took in a deep breath and let out a sigh. Was it actually possible? Had she just had an awful dream and nothing had gone wrong?

Rubbing her eyes Claire left the room, grabbing her backpack on the way out and ran right into a very attractive looking guy.

"Oh, uh, hey, how's the eye?"

_Shane._

Claire's heart skipped a beat.

This was the man of her dreams, quite literally. The man she was _engaged_ to in her dreams. Awkward.

"Better, I guess," she mumbled breathlessly, unable to look him in the eye. God, this was just plain awkward. "Umm, Shane right? I- I'm a little confused. Sorry, wow, it's just I, well you know, got hit in the head and have this major headache and- yeah."

"Oh, well, you still want the room right?" Claire nodded. "Well, you were pretty tired when you showed up yesterday and me and Eve felt kind of bad, Michael too, though you missed him, and so we just let you kind of sleep it off and yeah, he'll be back tonight so if you wanna stick around, it's a Saturday, so," he just kind of let it hang off at the end and gave her an incredulous look.

"Yeah, I have some errands to run so, um, what time does Michael show up around?" Claire kept looking down, nervously twirling her hair.

"Around seven, but hey you should eat breakfast with us first, I made bacon." He smiled at the end, looking proud. Claire really didn't want to hang around, she had so many things to figure out, but his chili had been killer…

"Yeah, that'd be cool," she said, adding her own smile to the end with a tilt of her head.

_God, Claire, stop flirting!_

Shane held her gaze for a moment longer, a moment just a bit too long, before ducking his head awkwardly and turning around towards the stairs.

Seating herself at the table, a still slightly bewildered Claire, watched Shane and Eve finish making breakfast, arguing over some girl named Laura/Linda that Shane had gone out with the night before, something about the sex he wasn't getting, _awkward, _and having the usual banter that she knew she would become accustom to. Just as Claire was about to help herself to a very delicious looking slice of bacon, it just had to be at that moment, the doorbell rang, a soft ringing sound.

_Oh shit, the cops._

Claire abruptly remember her dream and what was supposed to happen this day, the cops, looking for her, telling Shane and Eve that it was Monica who pushed her, ug. It really kind of sucked reliving things you've already done. Talk about déjà vu.

Eve and Shane froze, only for a moment before springing to action.

"In." Eve pointed to the cellar, already pushing open the hidden entrance that Claire knew was there. Halfway there Claire turned around, grabbing her still empty plate off the table and giving Eve a knowing smile as she shut the door behind her.

The conversation with the cops went much better than Claire remembered it going. Less suspicion.

_So I really can change how things are supposed to go!_

But yet Claire already sort of knew that. Instead of waking up to find Michael playing his guitar she had slept the whole night, now having to wait until he "showed" up again. Of course, Claire knew that Michael was still in the house, probably watching her this very minute which was just a bit on the creepy side.

Claire fought the urge to whisper "go away" into the suffocating darkness. Better get used to it, there was a long road of darkness ahead.

She heard the cops go away, front door banging shut behind them and a few moments later the door swung open, the sweet, sweet light framing Eve's ghoulishly-makeuped face. Helping her out and murmuring "It's okay" Claire turned to face Shane who she knew would be the one asking the hard questions.

"What the hell, Claire? What did you do?" Shane said practically fuming. Eve gave him a look that clearly read, calm down, and he stilled just a bit. "**They're **_**looking**_** for her!"**

Claire let out a long sigh, this really sucked right now, and dived right in the awkward conversation that led to the explanation of how it was Monica and then received the even awkward-er and definitely more saddening explanation of what Monica had done to Shane's sister.

Getting that whole mess out of the way, Eve left for work, Shane disappeared upstairs, and Claire, who was supposed to be studying at the moment, silently slipped out of the house.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Shit.

Claire turned around, "Uh, to get my stuff?"

Shane just shook his head, "You can't. Monica… look she's really crazy okay? Crazy and dangerous. I can't let you do that. You'll get hurt."

Claire's heart softened a bit at the look he gave her. Even before he was in love with her he was still a sweet guy. She suddenly realized that they all were, the Glass house gang. Sweet and nice and genuine and caring. Some of the hardest traits to find in people.

It saddened her a bit, all the hardships they would have to go through. Even if it all did work out in the end, some of the stuff really sucked.

"Are you alright?" Shane asked.

"Uh, yeah, but I really need to get my stuff and um, run to the store." Claire blinked and looked away, realizing she was on the verge of tears. He must have thought she was crazy.

"Store's okay, but going back to the dorms is a big no. Like really no. Just wait until Eve get's back and we'll drive you," he stepped toward her, offering comfort and safety.

"Thanks but, I need some time and I really should call my parents. Uh, look it'll only be an hour and I'll be back. No harm done!"

Shane gave her an incredulous look, "Seriously Claire, it's _dangerous_. You can't go back there. Do you even understand?" He looked slightly angry now.

Claire looked down for a moment, she really didn't want to upset him. Stepping forward she took his hand and looked him straight in the eye, something her before-dream-self never would have been brave enough to do, "I won't go back to the dorm. I promise. I just need some time to think, alright? I'll be back in an hour."

With that she hiked her backpack higher on her aching shoulder and marched off down the path.

**YAY! This is really kind of fun to write. So you know the drill, R and R baby! Seriously, emphasis on the second R, **_**review! **_** Or I'll haunt you in your dreams!**

**Peace and Love**


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